Movie Night
by StrangelyPenned
Summary: "Seeing as you're watching, I'm guessing you've found the disc at the back of the movie stash. Make sure Percy, Annabeth or Grover don't see this. Especially Percy. Because then he'd kill us."  When Piper finds a Stoll-hijacked DVD named 'Hepheastus TV', she is surprised to find a variety of videos, all about the missing hero's life. Set between TLH and SON.  Mostly canon pairings
1. The Thrill Ride of Love

**TWO MONTHS AGO, JASON, PIPER AND LEO RETURNED FROM THEIR QUEST TO FREE HERA. SINCE THEN, WORK ON THE ARGO II HAS PROGRESSED UNDER LEO'S LEADERSHIP. JASON HAS REMEMBERED A LOT MORE ABOUT HIS PAST THAN PREVIOUSLY AND ANNABETH, NICO, GROVER, THALIA AND TYSON ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR PERCY.**

A Weird DVD

Piper hadn't expected to find the disc when she had looked through the stash. In fact, she hadn't really expected to find _any _DVD to watch. She didn't suppose demigods would have much time in between the whole 'saving the world' thing they were doing constantly. She hadn't counted on Connor and Travis Stoll and the Hermes cabin – after all, if they could sneak in banned junk food, why not movies?

Leo was leading work on the Argo II again. It felt like he was constantly working on that ship to Piper. With the on-going offer of help from all the campers and the skill the Hephaestus cabin led everyone with; the ship should be finished in no time. Annabeth would be happy to hear that – she'd been searching for Percy nonstop. Right now she was talking to Grover – Percy's best friend, apparently, who'd just returned from a search. Piper had been a little nonplussed when she'd heard his best mate was a satyr, but then again, she'd heard a lot of strange things about Percy Jackson.

'Hey, what's up?'

Piper jumped in alarm as she turned towards the source of the voice. She'd been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't even noticed anyone coming in. Her tense posture relaxed and a smile appeared on her face as she saw who it was.

'Jason,' Piper smiled. 'Hi. I thought you were in your cabin?'

Jason grinned. 'Yeah, well. Too much alone time in that cabin gives me the creeps. Especially with the giant statue of Jupiter right there.'

'Zeus,' corrected Piper.

'Right, Zeus,' Jason nodded. 'I always forget. I should know by now, really.'

'Ah it's fine, it's just your Roman-ness,' Piper grinned. Then she held up the DVD case. 'Look what I found.'

Jason approached her and looked at it. 'Hephaestus TV? What is this?'

'I don't know,' shrugged Piper. 'I was trying to find a good film to watch and came across this.' She took it back off Jason and flipped it over. ' 'Genuine Olympian TV',' she read aloud.

'Well, if it's good enough for the gods,' Jason said slowly, a spark in his eyes.

Piper grinned again and loaded the disc into the TV mounted on the wall. Then Jason dimmed the lights a little and they both settled back onto the sofa. Piper smiled contentedly as Jason's arm wrapped around her shoulders.

A symbol flashed up on the screen, a strange, n-shaped looking letter. **η**

'What's that?' Jason frowned. 'Why is there an n on screen?'

'I don't- oh! It's not an n!' guessed Piper. 'It's a Greek letter. Delta, I think. No, Eta. It's the Greek letter Eta.'

'Okay, why is the letter eta on screen?' asked Jason.

At this, Piper gave a one-shouldered shrug. Jason chuckled and she smiled back at him ruefully, settling back into his arm a little more.

'Hey lovebirds! And I thought it was just Piper in here!'

The two of them jumped and Piper grabbed the remote, pausing the show they were watching. Leo was standing in the room – even though neither of them had heard the door opening – with his hair damp from a shower.

'Leo!' cried Piper, trying to feel annoyed he had interrupted her alone-time with Jason. But the fact was, she hadn't seen Leo in so long she was almost missing him. While her time at the Wilderness School with Jason may have been fake, she had known Leo the whole time.

'Hey, where've you been, man?' Jason demanded.

'Working,' replied Leo.

'You work too hard,' Piper told him, shifting a little closer to Jason to make room for him on the sofa.

Leo sat down and caught the movement. He gave her a wink and she flushed slightly.

'So, how's the ship doing?' she asked hastily.

'Great!' enthused Leo. 'You should come down and help some time Beauty Queen. Maybe you could just talk it to build itself.'

'Ha, ha,' Piper commented dryly. Then she grabbed up the remote and clicked play again.

'What are you watching?' Leo asked. 'Hey, what's that weird thingy?'

'Hephaestus TV, apparently,' supplied Jason. 'And Piper says the n is an Eta. You know, the Greek letter.'

'Eta, Hephaestus TV, I get it,' chuckled Leo.

The other two both looked at him, eyebrows raised.

'Woah. And I thought Nyssa was scary when she does that.'

'You get what it means?' Piper asked impatiently.

'Sure, Beauty Queen. That 'n' that was over there was just the lowercase version of the Eta; the capital one looks like a H. I'm guessing that's why Hephaestus used it.' Jason and Piper stared at Leo, so he pressed on. 'You know, the whole Hephaestus begins with H and all …' He trailed off and they were still staring at him. '_What_?'

Jason spoke up. 'I'm impressed Leo. Where'd you learn it all?'

'Jeez Sparky, you don't think I know clever stuff like this?'

Piper laughed. 'Leo, you drew a Greek warship when you were five, with crayons. You're smart, we know that. It's just you don't really spout Greek info.'

'Ah,' grinned Leo. 'Well, I was talking to Annabeth.'

'About Greek letters?' Piper asked.

'No, about- you know what. That's a story for another time. What are we watching?'

'We don't actually know,' Jason replied and the three of them switched their focus back to the TV. 'Piper found it stored amongst the illegal movie stash.'

'You mean the one that's right over there?'

'Yup.'

'Because Chiron can totally _not _see that,' smirked Leo.

Piper rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm. 'Shut up with the sarcasm. I wanna know what this is.'

As if on cue, the screen blacked out for a few seconds and they all hushed. A moment later, a short boy with a mischievous grin on his face came into view.

'Hey guys!' cried Connor Stoll, giving a cheery wave. 'Seeing as you're watching, I'm guessing you've found the disc at the back of the movie stash. Make sure Percy, Annabeth or Grover don't see this, because I'm pretty sure one of them would kill us. Especially Percy. He's not a good guy to make angry. Because then he'd kill us. And that would not a good thing.'

'Hurry up, my arms are getting tired,' moaned Travis Stoll from behind the camera.

'Right,' nodded Connor, leaning closer and dropping his voice. 'If you haven't paid the rent of five drachmas for watching, we'll hunt you down and make you pay.'

'Connor!' complained Travis. 'Just tell them what it is already!'

'I was only reminding them of the price issue,' frowned Connor, affronted, looking past the camera.

'Why would you need to remind them of that?'

'Because the disc got lost, remember?' replied Connor, mouthing the word 'lost'.

'Right, yeah. Here, my arms are killing. You have the camera.'

The screen tilted suddenly as Travis passed the camera to his brother. Connor grumbled, but held it straight and a grinning Travis came into view.

'This is basically a collection of- well, you'll see. Oh and don't tell Hephaestus about this either, or I'm sure he'll sue us for copyrighting. Even though all the content doesn't belong to him … ' Travis trailed off thoughtfully, but yelped suddenly at something off-screen.

Connor cried out too and the image twisted again, seemingly getting stuffed into a jacket. The picture blacked out, but they could still hear what was going on.

'Hey Percy,' said Travis casually.

At this, Jason, Piper and Leo all leant forwards in anticipation. After hearing so much about the guy, they kind of wanted to find out more about him. Unfortunately, the conversation was pretty short.

'Hey guys,' replied Percy. 'Whatcha doing?'

'Nothing.' Connor replied too quickly.

'Just, standing around. Enjoying the sunshine.' Added Travis.

Somehow, the pause felt like Percy was rolling his eyes. 'Forget I asked. See ya guys. Hey, you Stoll.' Then his voice faded away, chuckling as he went.

Leo grinned. 'Ha, I get it. Funny guy.'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Yeah, you have the same weird sense of humour.'

On the TV, Travis was up on screen again. He looked round nervously, then spoke quietly into the camera. 'Mmkay, we should get this rolling before he comes back. Enjoy the show!'

The screen blacked out.

'Those two,' commented Jason. 'Are the weirdest. I swear.'

Piper opened her mouth to agree, when suddenly the Eta sign flashed up on screen again, followed by a smirking Connor Stoll.

'This incident occurred when two of the most unfortunate members of this camp got stuck in a Hephaestus trap. It was meant for Aphrodite and Ares, but I apparently Ares knew that, so he sent our dude Jackson. It's hilarious. Oh, it also showed live in Olympus.'

Suddenly, they were looking at a theme park ride. Piper frowned for a second, before she realised it was Annabeth and what could only be Percy Jackson. Percy Jackson pulled Annabeth down next to him in a love-seat and clipped a seatbelt over her.

'Err, why are they riding-' Jason began, but Piper shushed him.

Percy closed his eyes and for a second Piper thought he was panicking, but then she remembered he was also a son of Poseidon. A massive wave of water flew over the little boat-ride-thing, completely soaking Percy and Annabeth.

'Are those _spiders_ that just got washed away?' Leo asked, frowning and leaning closer.

'Must be. Look, Annabeth looks terrified,' Piper noticed.

'Scared of spiders?' asked Jason. 'Oh, right, yeah, something to do with Athena and … I don't know. It's something to do with her Mom.'

Suddenly, screaming started up from the screen as Percy and Annabeth's boat rocked into the tunnel. The cameras followed them as they rocketed round corners, pictures of Valentine's Day stuff flashing past them.

'Are mushy love rides normally that fast?' Leo asked with a grin.

'It's probably Percy and his water-powers,' observed Jason.

'Shush,' ordered Piper, not meaning to use her charmspeak but doing so anyway.

On the TV, the love boat sailed into open air. It still seemed to be going at a million miles per hour though, so Piper was shocked when Percy told Annabeth to unfasten her seatbelt.

'What?' exclaimed Jason. 'The guy's crazy!'

'Are you crazy?' Annabeth demanded from Percy and Leo grinned at Jason.

'You think the same as Annabeth. I guess that's one thing to be proud of.'

Jason shot him a look, so they all turned and continued watching the drama unfold.

Percy seemed to be strapping some kind of shield to his arm. 'We're going to have to jump for it,' he said to Annabeth.

Jason stared. 'Okay, that's it. He is officially mental.'

'Ah, but Jase, it's the only way to get out or get smashed to death,' Leo told him. 'Look, the gates are chained shut.'

Jason scowled. 'I totally knew that.'

'Aw, they're holding hands!' cooed Piper, in such a typical-Aphrodite-girl voice that both Jason and Leo stared at her. 'What?'

'You sounded like … like … ' Leo trailed off as he thought of something to liken Piper to. Then his attention returned to the screen. 'Okay, Annabeth is officially not speaking English anymore.'

'-the trajectory angle,' Annabeth was saying, before being quickly interrupted by Percy.

'Fine! When _you_ say go!'

Annabeth hesitated. The two gripped each other's hand tightly and looked ready to spring forwards at any second. Piper noticed that Percy looked like a tightly-coiled spring, waiting to strike. It sort of reminded her of Jason. She didn't know how, seeing as she hadn't even met Percy Jackson.

'_Now!_' Annabeth yelled and the two of them jumped.

Their boat smashed into the others that had collected at the gate and they launched into the air.

'They're going to smash into the ground!' gasped Piper.

'Now this is a time I remember the usefulness of your Superman powers dude,' Leo said to Jason. 'Unfortunately, not all of us can fly at will.'

Just then, Percy and Annabeth were grabbed by-

'It's a flying goat,' Leo pointed out nonchalantly.

'I think that's Grover,' Piper told him.

'The guy Annabeth's talking to today?' Jason asked and Piper replied with a nod.

Unfortunately, both Percy and Annabeth's combined weight was too much for Grover and he knew it.

'You're too heavy! We're going down!' he yelled.

The three of them spiralled towards the ground, despite Grover's best efforts with the flying shoes they now noticed he was wearing. They smashed into the ground, Grover's head going straight through a photo board and becoming a whale.

'Ouch.' Jason winced. 'Now that's bad luck. I'd take the gravel any day.'

'And live to Olympus too,' remembered Leo. 'Oh boy, poor satyr.'

'Would you two shush,' Piper hissed irritably. 'You've talk non-stop through the entire thing!'

'Sorry Beauty Queen. ADHD, remember?'

'Idiot-itis more like,' grinned Piper, throwing a cushion at his head.

Leo ducked out of the way and frowned at her. He opened his mouth to say something, when Piper put a finger on her lips and pointed to the TV screen. Piper smirked when he complied, probably because he knew she could just _make _him do it.

Annabeth was checking if Grover was injured and Percy was looking at the boat wreck. Then they seemed to realise they were still being filmed. The three of them fell quiet. As Percy turned to face the cameras, Piper saw both annoyance and anger on his face.

'Show's over!' he shouted at the cameras, in what seemed like a rather rude tone to speak to the gods.

'He's crazy,' Jason repeated to himself under his breath.

'Thank you!' Percy Jackson yelled. 'Goodnight!'

The screen went blank once more and the three of them looked at each other. Piper was just about to remark that it had been a rather short movie when Connor Stoll appeared on screen again. His grin – if possible – seemed even more mischievous than it had been before. He was beaming.

'Remember we told you this rolled live to Olympus? Well, Percy and Annabeth probably wouldn't be very happy to be reminded of the fact, but we decided to let you in on something. Beckendorf – our friendly Hephaestus cabin leader – hacked into the Hephaestus TV signal and we got a feed of what happened in Olympus when this was up.' Connor winked. 'Funny stuff.'

Then the Eta symbol appeared once more and Jason, Piper and Leo settled back onto the sofa again to view the next clip.


	2. Arguing in Olympus

_I've been really busy, so sorry for not replying much sooner. Anyway, here's the next chapter, hope you enjoy it! And don't forget to review!_

That Insolent Kid

Piper didn't realise what she was seeing at first. On screen was a large chamber with a variety of thrones in a 'U' shape. Ten out of twelve thrones were occupied and all eyes were on two men near the front.

'Who are these guys?' Leo asked absently.

'I am _telling _you, Brother. Give it back!' shouted one of the men. He was dark-haired, wearing a business suit and seemed to emanate an aura of power.

'I don't have it!' the other man snapped. He looked somewhat familiar and was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and held a trident in his hand.

Piper noticed that they seemed to be arguing rather petulantly. They were like kids fighting over a lost toy.

'Gods,' Jason breathed suddenly. 'Look, that one's Hera.'

They all squinted at the lady sitting on the centre throne. She was wearing a long white dress and had flowers in her hair, but there was no mistaking her. The Greek equivalent of Juno; whom they had last seen at the Wolf House in a goatskin cloak.

'So that's must be Zeus,' Jason continued. 'And judging from the trident, he's probably fighting with Poseidon.'

'Percy Jackson's dad,' mused Piper. 'I wondered why he looked familiar.'

'Why are they showing us the gods arguing?' Leo asked.

'It probably happens a lot,' agreed Piper.

Suddenly, the throne room burst open and a man with a postman's outfit walked in, texting on a phone entwined with snakes. Piper noticed suddenly that he was gigantic – and so were all the rest.

'Hermes,' a god spoke – young-looking and with what seemed to be an iPod in his ears. 'Where've you been?'

Hermes shrugged. 'I'm a busy guy, Apollo. I can't sit around all day.'

'Ssh,' hissed a woman that could only be Aphrodite. 'Zeus has invited us all here to listen to them arguing.'

'And they're arguing brilliantly,' said a woman sitting next to Aphrodite in a bored voice. She had a bow beside her feet and was scowling.

'Wow, a woman today sis,' Apollo grinned. 'What happened?'

'Artemis,' Piper realised.

'What does he mean?' question Jason. Piper just shrugged.

On-screen, however, Artemis had changed into a young girl with wide, serious looking eyes. Apollo just laughed, so she changed back and scowled again, crossing her arms and sitting upright in her chair.

'I just remembered,' Leo cried. 'Thalia's a huntress of Artemis, isn't she?'

Jason nodded slowly, a frown creasing his eyebrows together slightly. Piper squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. Somewhere on-screen, a phone rang.

'I'm sure she's fine, Jason,' Piper said comfortingly.

'She's looking for a guy who's been missing for more than two months now Pipes,' Jason said miserably. 'She's probably in danger.'

'We're half-bloods,' Leo put in. 'Our _life _is danger.'

Piper nodded and Jason sighed, then shrugged and faced the screen. Leo and Piper followed suite. On the TV, Hermes was finishing his phone call. He turned to a short man with a flaming beard and a misshapen leg sitting on the other side of Apollo.

'Did you have some kind of special broadcast going on today?' Hermes asked him.

Hephaestus frowned and shook his head. 'Not that I can think of.'

Beside him, a tall man with wraparound shades a biker jacket chuckled. 'I can think of one.'

Hephaestus scowled at him. 'And what would that be?'

'Let's find out,' Apollo butted in eagerly, taking out his headphones. 'C'mon Hephaestus, pull your telly out!'

Hephaestus sighed, then he fiddled with a remote on the arm of his throne and a gigantic TV screen dropped down from the ceiling. Everyone but Zeus and Poseidon seemed to notice the movement and looked towards it expectantly.

Jason, Piper and Leo also leaned forwards, wondering what it could be. Then a theme park ride showed again, with Percy pulling Annabeth down into a love seat.

'It's the love ride,' Leo exclaimed.

'The Stolls did say it streamed live to Olympus,' Jason added.

'That's my daughter!' a woman on-screen muttered suddenly. She was almost identical to Annabeth and Piper had no trouble figuring out it was Athena.

'I feel sorry for Percy Jackson,' Piper remarked. 'Athena doesn't look happy.'

The said woman turned angrily to Hephaestus. '_What _is my daughter doing in one of your traps?'

'I don't know, Athena,' Hephaestus replied irritably. 'I'm guessing it has something to do with this idiot over here.'

Ares chuckled. 'Jackson's the idiot. He didn't even realise he was being tricked.'

'I do not appreciate you harming my daughter, Ares,' Athena said coldly, nostrils flaming.

Ares was about to reply when a shout from the back of the room caused them all to look up. Zeus was glaring at Poseidon and Poseidon was staring at the TV screen.

'You see what foolishness your son gets up to?' Zeus barked.

'My son is not foolish,' Poseidon snapped, turning to face Zeus.

'Your son has got my daughter into danger, Poseidon,' Athena pointed out with a scowl.

'Why would he do that?' Poseidon demanded. 'Your child could be his enemy!'

'At least Annabeth has brains!' Athena retorted. 'She would be clever enough not to get caught up in one of Ares' foolish plans.'

'Do not insult my son, Athena!' Poseidon growled.

'I will do whatever I like!' the grey-eyed woman replied frostily.

'Look, they're flying!' Apollo interrupted hurriedly, before the argument could get any worse.

'I'll kill-' Zeus began, before realising that actually they were falling.

Jason winced as Grover fell into the photo board again. 'Live to Olympus, man.'

Apollo and Ares burst out laughing as they saw it, but after getting twin glares from Aphrodite and Athena they quickly shut up.

'Wait a second, isn't this the bit where-' Leo began, before trailing off.

On-screen, Percy Jackson was standing up and looking straight into the camera. To the gods and goddesses, it must have been like he was glaring right at them. Which he was, to be fair.

'Show's over!' he yelled and they all drew back slightly. 'Thank you!'

'Arrogant kid,' Ares mumbled.

'Goodnight!' Percy Jackson shouted and they just had time enough to see him turn away before the TV went black and it rolled up into the ceiling again.

'You see how impertinent your child is?' Zeus yelled to Poseidon.

'He _didn't_ steal your bolt Zeus, if that's what you're implying,' Poseidon replied darkly.

'He's a rude mortal that I will crush unless you _give it back_!'

'Ouch,' winced Leo. 'Having the god of the sky on your case. Not a good idea.'

'He's not exactly got the sunniest of personalities,' Piper agreed, before gasping. 'Sorry, Jason. I didn't mean-'

'Nah, it's okay,' Jason waved it off. 'I've seen his statue.'

'-what will he do next?' Zeus was crying from on-screen. 'Perhaps a note to tell us we're all wrong!'

'I'm a god!' Apollo cried indignantly. 'I'm not wrong!'

'Shut up and sit down, Apollo,' Artemis sighed and her brother did so.

'Actually,' Hermes interrupted awkwardly, looking up from his phone. 'I have a delivery for, um … Well, us.'

Ares narrowed his eyes at Hermes. 'Then what are you waiting for?

'It's from-' Hermes glanced at Poseidon, then sighed and a box appeared in his lap with a faint _pop_.

Ares grabbed it out of his arms. 'The Gods, Mount Olympus, 600th Floor, New York. With best wishes, Percy Jackson.'

Jason, Piper and Leo gasped in alarm. Piper sat forwards slightly, disbelieving. Percy Jackson was sending things to the gods?

'That guy is insane,' Jason muttered. 'Actually insane.'

'I wonder what he's sent them,' Leo thought aloud.

Zeus's eyes widened and he turned to Poseidon, who was frowning.

'Give it to me, Ares!' Zeus demanded.

The box flew across the room and to Zeus, who opened the box, almost gingerly. A foul smell seemed to overcome the throne room, for all the gods and goddesses groaned aloud and covered their noses.

With a heavy look on his face, Zeus lifted up the thing inside the box. It was partially wrapped in a black cloth, but there was no mistaking what it was. Green snakes hung limply like hair and a green liquid dripped from it slowly.

'Medusa's head,' Athena remarked, surprised.

'He killed Medusa?' Jason gawped.

On-screen, Poseidon looked to Athena, a hint of a smile on his face. For her part, Athena scowled and looked away.

'Why would he send that to us?' Apollo wondered. 'To show off that he killed it?'

'You see the impertinence in your son?' Zeus demanded. 'How _dare _he send it to us?'

Athena couldn't keep quiet. 'It's because he doesn't like us.'

'Doesn't like-' Poseidon began, but Athena cut him off.

'Let's face it Poseidon, you only claimed him to cover your own name.'

'Ouch,' Leo muttered again. 'This guy has seriously bad luck.'

'I feel kind of sorry for him,' Piper remarked.

Poseidon's face reddened. 'I did not!'

'Nevertheless brother, you have played your last card.' Zeus dropped the head back into the box then tossed it across the room to Hermes. 'Send that back to where it came from.'

Hermes complied with a nod and the box vanished. Poseidon was glaring at Zeus, his trident twitching in his hand.

'I have told you already, I did not instruct him to steal your lightning bolt.'

'And you could also explain why exactly he sent us Medusa's head!' Zeus bellowed angrily.

Poseidon was about to reply, but the screen cut off, going black. The end of the clip.

Jason, Piper and Leo exchanged glances.'

'He sent them Medusa's head,' Leo noted.

'He killed Medusa!' Jason cried. 'Now I know she's all Greek mythology, but even us Romans have heard of Medusa.'

'She probably sticks to killing Greek demigods though,' Piper muttered thoughtfully. 'I wonder why he sent it?'

'You heard Athena, he was angry.'

The three of them whirled round to see Annabeth standing there. Piper grabbed up the remote and hit pause, then wondered how they were going to explain themselves. Seeing the guilty looks on their faces, she sighed and pulled a chair up to the sofa.

'How long have you been standing there Annabeth?' Piper asked worriedly.

'Only just came in now,' Annabeth shrugged. 'Why?'

Piper smiled with relief. 'Oh, no reason. Just wondering.'

'He was angry?' Leo prodded, curious to know Percy Jackson's reasoning.

Annabeth looked faraway, but she launched into the story. 'Yeah. We were tired, hungry and we found a garden shop. We walked in and a woman offered us cheeseburgers.'

'Medusa offered you cheeseburgers,' Jason remarked, shaking his head.

Annabeth nodded. 'We realised it was Medusa later, of course. And then Percy killed her. He did it because … well, we'd argued over whose fault Medusa was and then he stalked off, coming back with a box and a delivery slip.' She shrugged again, smiling slightly. 'He's so … _impulsive_.'

'The gods called him impertinent,' Piper offered.

Annabeth nodded. 'That too.' She yawned, then stood up. 'Where'd you get the disc from?'

There was a short silence, then Piper spoke up. 'Oh, the Stolls made a DVD of, you know, what happens in Olympus.'

'Oh, I've never seen it before,' Annabeth said, looking puzzled for a second. 'Anyway, just came to say good work, Leo. The ship looks brilliant. We'll be finished in no time at this rate.'

Leo nodded and grinned. 'Still got quite a few months to go yet. But yeah, we'll be finished.'

'Well, thanks,' Annabeth said again, then left the room, closing the door behind her.

Piper breathed a sigh of relief.

'Let's give her time to get away,' said Jason. 'And then we can carry on watching it. I want to see what the Stolls have lined up next.'


	3. Dangerous Greek Sports

_I love you guys too much. Look at this RIDICULOUSLY LONG chapter even though I have LOADS of other stuff to do!_

_I don't have time to respond to anonymous reviews right now, sorry. They'll all be coming with the next chapter._

It's Begun Already

The eta symbol flashed up on screen, followed by the Stolls' faces. Connor Stoll – the shorter one – was looking down at a list. Travis was looking off-screen nervously. Then he spoke to his brother.

'It's playing.'

Connor looked up. 'Are you sure Percy's not coming back? Or Annabeth? Or something. Because how will we explain the tripod?'

'Is everyone in camp scared of those two or something?' asked Jason.

Piper heard the amusement in his voice. She was kind of glad; both camps needed Jason and Percy to get along.

'They're not around,' Travis replied. 'But anyway, we could say we're doing a nature documentary for … Grover?'

'How about Katie instead?' Connor offered, waggling his eyebrows.

'I have seen those two give each other funny looks,' Piper remarked.

Leo just rolled his eyes. 'And you say you're not a typical Aphrodite girl.'

'What's wrong with a bit of love?' Piper exclaimed, affronted, leaning back into Jason's arms.

'Shut up,' Travis said on the TV, going red.

Piper involuntarily glanced at Leo, who raised an eyebrow at her and smirked. Piper suddenly felt very conscious of Jason's arm around her and turned resolutely to face the DVD again. Leo sniggered in the background and she tried to ignore him.

'Anyway!' Travis cried on-screen. 'Next!' He snatched the piece of paper off Connor and looked down it. 'We have a short film about chariot racing.' He frowned, looking up. 'Who put this on here?'

'It's the chariot race we had that time,' Connor enthused. 'Remember? With Tantalus?'

'Why would you put that there?' Travis grumbled. 'I mean, who do you think won?'

'Ah ah ah! No spoilers!' his brother grinned.

Travis's eyes suddenly widened and he looked at Connor. 'Isn't that the one Silena recorded?'

Connor actually face-palmed. 'It's going to be all about love and stuff, isn't it?'

Piper felt Leo looking at her and her face went red. 'Shut up Leo!' she cried.

'Probably focusing on Beckendorf,' Travis chuckled.

'I wasn't saying anything!' Leo exclaimed, putting up his hands. 'I was just thinking, it might be good if this is all about Beckendorf.'

'Why?' Jason asked aloud.

'Cos he was a Cabin Nine demigod,' replied Leo, rolling his eyes.

'No,' Jason sat up a little straighter. 'Why would it be about Beckendorf?'

Leo frowned and shrugged, mystified. The two of them turned to Piper, who blushed a little under the scrutiny.

'Anyway, here's the clip!' Connor said on TV.

'Because they were in love,' she replied.

'Enjoy!' Travis added, and it blacked out.

They all turned to face it expectantly. Shaky footage appeared. Currently, it only seemed to be of what looked like feet. Then the picture zoomed out a little and they saw kids sitting around on bleachers, watching something.

'Silena and Beckendorf both died in the summer, didn't they?' Jason asked suddenly.

'Yeah,' Leo and Piper replied simultaneously.

Jason nodded to himself and was silent. Piper frowned and gave his hand a comforting squeeze. He glanced down at her, distracted, before looking back at the race on the screen again. They could now see six chariots entering the race track.

As the spectators chatter went on in the background Silena – who they knew to be holding the camera – zoomed in on one of the chariots. It was a big, bronze and had metal horses. It was being driven by a bug buff dude that was no doubt Beckendorf.

'Their ride is sweet,' Leo muttered to himself. 'Look, side pockets for projectiles. And the horses are made out of metal!'

'Quit fangirling Leo,' Piper said, hiding her smirk.

'Huh?' Leo turned to face her with a confused expression.

'Nothing,' Piper said breezily, and pointed to the TV again.

After a long time focusing on the bronze chariot, it showed a blood-red one with Clarisse driving. She had a self-assured look on her face as she watched the two horse skeletons lead them forwards.

'That looks like some wicked weapons,' Jason commented, pointing to the array of spears, javelins and spiked balls loaded onto it.

'I prefer the Apollo chariot,' Piper offered, pointing to the picture that had just come up. The third chariot was pure gold and pulled by two white horses. 'It's beautiful.'

'Look, the Stolls!' Leo exclaimed, pointing to an old-looking chariot on the screen. 'What do you want to bet they don't win?'

'No bets man,' Jason said hurriedly. 'I'm not betting with you again after last time.

Leo grinned and Piper raised an eyebrow. 'If you were going to bet on _anything _about the Argo against him Jason, did you really expect to win?'

'My namesake had an Argo too!' Jason cried.

Piper just rolled her eyes. Leo stuck his tongue out at Jason, who rolled his eyes as well and looked at the DVD.

'I'm so unappreciated,' Leo remarked.

'Shut up and watch it,' Piper replied. 'I bet Percy and Annabeth win.'

'They can't be, they're not together,' Jason said, sounding surprised. 'Look, isn't that Percy, near that sea-ish one?'

They all squinted at the screen. It was indeed Percy, standing next to some unremarkable looking horses. He was petting them but was looking at them so intently he seemed to be _communicating _with them.

'Poseidon created horses,' Piper muttered to herself.

'Why is there a Cyclops in the Poseidon chariot?' Leo wondered aloud.

'Isn't that Tyson?' said Piper.

Jason frowned. 'That guy who's Percy Jackson's brother, apparently?'

'Mhm.'

'The dude has a Cyclops for a brother?' Leo asked, eyebrows shooting up. 'Well, that's not strange at all.'

'And that's Annabeth,' Piper interrupted. 'With Malcolm, I think. I like that chariot.'

'It's grey,' Leo said.

Piper glared at him.

'And has an owl on it.'

Piper glared some more.

'Okay, okay, fine!'

'Athena is the only female goddess being represented here,' Piper said with a frown. 'Next time there's a chariot race, the Aphrodite cabin are totally getting involved.'

The camera zoomed out, showing all the chariots lining up. In the background, they could still hear a faint murmur of talking, but a screeching sound seemed to have gotten louder.

'Is that … birds?' Leo asked.

'Really loud birds?' Jason said doubtfully.

'Charioteers!' someone shouted off screen.

'Okay, who's that?' Jason asked. 'It's not Chiron, is it?'

'I've no idea,' Piper said truthfully. She'd have to ask her cabin mates about that later.

'Attend your mark!' continued the voice.

The camera zoomed out again and they saw a guy sitting in the very front of the spectators. They all looked at him curiously, but nobody recognised him.

'I wonder where Chiron is,' said Piper.

The man waved his hand, a signal flag dropped and the charioteers roared to life, speeding along the track. Almost immediately, the Hermes chariot crashed into the Apollo one. The golden chariot flipped over.

Piper huffed indignantly. 'Those Hermes kids.'

'Never give them spray paint near the Argo,' Leo told her seriously, then shuddered.

The palomino Apollo horses dragged the chariot across the track and straight into the Hermes one. It left a giant cloud of dust back in the track, with lots of broken wood and neighing horses.

'I guess Apollo got his own back on Hermes,' Jason chuckled.

The threesome turned their attention back to the race. The Athena chariot was way ahead (Piper whooped when she saw this) and Malcolm, in the back with a javelin, was grinning out the back at the others. In second place, just ahead of the red Ares chariot, was Percy. He was holding the reins and looking forward, face completely determined.

'Athena is so going to win,' Piper said.

'Um, actually, Beckendorf's … ' Leo trailed off.

They watched as Beckendorf pulled up behind Percy and apologised loudly. Then he slammed a button and chains shot from the side panels.

'Projectiles!' Leo cried triumphantly. 'Exactly what I would've done!'

'Dude, Tyson the Cyclops just whacked them away,' Jason pointed out.

'Birds!' Tyson yelled on screen.

Silena must have been sitting high up in the stands, because as she zoomed out, they did indeed see pigeon-like things in the air. In fact, the noise was so loud Silena's camera panned off the race and to the sky. A huge tornado of pigeons was approaching the race track, swirling malevolently and shrieking loudly.

Silena faced the camera on the track again, just in time to see Percy pulling up behind Annabeth. Then Silena cried out in alarm. Down below, the Hepheastus chariot had been mobbed by the birds and so had the spectators.

'I read about these!' Piper exclaimed suddenly. 'Oh, what are they called?'

'Evil pigeons that don't like chariot races?' Leo suggested.

'I agree with Leo,' Jason said, eyes transfixed on the screen.

They heard the word 'ow' being repeated several times and the picture on the TV swerved suddenly. It was if Silena was beating off the birds with it.

'She's beating off the birds with it,' Leo remarked.

'Go Silena!' Piper cried, sitting up straight and grinning, despite the birds whose names she couldn't remember.

'Can't-get-rid-of them!' said a girl's voice. They couldn't see who said it and assumed it was Silena. 'It's up to the charioteers!'

'What are these things?' shouted a boy's voice from somewhere off-screen.

Silena grunted loudly. She set her camera down (pointing, incidentally, in the direction of the race track) then came around in front of it and pulled out a knife. She began attacking the birds ferociously.

'Reminds me of you Pipes,' Leo said brightly. 'You're that violent, if not more.'

Silena disappeared off-screen and they saw the chariot race. The Hephaestus chariot had spun off into the strawberry fields where it lay steaming, and Annabeth and Percy were talking. Piper couldn't hear a word of their speech because of the birds. Then Percy turned round.

'Why is he turning around?' Jason asked.

'Stymphalian birds!' exclaimed Piper.

'Stig what?' said Leo.

'Stymphalian birds,' said Piper. 'That's what they are. They'll peck everyone to death.'

'So they have to help, right,' nodded Jason, and looked back at the screen.

Annabeth and Percy were driving their chariots towards the stands. They both began hacking at the birds ferociously, but Piper could hardly see them. They were overwhelmed.

'Where's that dude?' Leo voiced suddenly. 'You know, that guy who started the race?'

'Oh yeah!' said Piper, and began combing the screen, looking for him. 'Um, he's nowhere.'

Suddenly, they saw Annabeth hand the reins to Malcolm and leap across into Percy's chariot. Then they started driving, across the strawberry fields.

'They're running away to the Big House?' Jason asked incredulously.

'Look, Clarisse has won,' Piper pointed. They could just see the edge of a red chariot standing over the finish line.

Poseidon's chariot disappeared out of view and the three of them sat back a little, taking in the scene. There were birds everywhere.

'What's with the sudden attack, anyway?' Leo asked.

'It was kind of random,' Jason agreed.

There were birds everywhere. Suddenly, the Hephaestus chariot set alight – a great fireball in the middle of the strawberry field. The guy they couldn't identify emerged suddenly, running straight across the bottom of the stands, chasing after-

'Is that food the dude is running over?' Piper asked, leaning forwards.

'He's not much use, is he?' Jason commented.

Campers were running away from the stands, but still being attacked by birds. Then they saw the Poseidon chariot pull up.

'Um,' Leo said slowly.

Jason nodded. 'He's holding a CD.'

'And Annabeth has a boom box,' Piper put in. 'Is this the time?'

Then the weirdest thing happened. Percy Jackson put the CD into the box and some really awful music started. Really loud. The Stymphalian birds went crazy, running around in circles and squawking.

'Isn't that Chiron's CD?' Jason asked. 'I swear I've heard him listening to it.'

'Of course!' Piper breathed.

'What?' Leo asked. The birds all leapt into the air, seemingly flying away in an arc, and he cried 'They're letting them get away?'

Silena picked up the camera again. She focused it on Percy, Annabeth and Tyson standing near the music player. Annabeth shouted out for the archers.

Silena whipped the camera round to capture the Apollo archers knocking the birds down just in time. They spiralled, steaming, to the ground.

'Weird, bronze-beaked things,' Leo said in disgust. 'Good riddance.'

There was finally no more shrieking and after the mad noise they had just heard, it seemed kind of strange. Silena focused back on Percy, who turned off the music. That just allowed them to hear the Aphrodite kids screaming about their hair and dirty clothes.

Piper frowned and looked at Leo, who was grinning at her. 'Some things never change, huh Beauty Queen?'

'Shut up,' Piper retorted. 'I told you, okay? Next chariot race the cabin of love is going to win.'

'I'll bet you on that, cos this time Zeus is going to take part,' Jason said.

'Stop trying to bet people Jason,' Piper said, grinning.

'Bravo!' the random guy called out suddenly.

'So he stops chasing food,' said Leo.

'We have our first winner!' he said, and strode over and gave Clarisse a laurel-wreath.

Jason sat up. 'What? They saved everyone! Clarisse … well, Clarisse didn't!' He glanced at Piper and Leo. 'Don't tell her I said that.'

Piper just grinned. However, it quickly fell of her face when the dude turned to Percy, Annabeth and Tyson with a nasty smile.

'And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race,' he said.

'What?' Leo exclaimed. 'They didn't do anything!'

'We didn't do anything!' Percy cried, on-screen.

'The Stymphalian birds were minding their own business in the woods,' the guy said.

'Like attacking people?' snorted Jason. 'That dude is out of order man.'

'They attacked people and we stopped them,' Annabeth put in, sounding very annoyed.

'Annabeth is not good when she's annoyed,' said Leo.

'You three simply distracted them with your abysmal chariot driving,' the man continued. 'And they would not have attacked if not for you.'

'What?' Percy yelped. Everyone in the background was quiet for once, almost as if they were waiting for the next stupid thing to come out of Percy's mouth. 'That is so unfair, Tantalus. Why don't you go chase a doughnut or something.'

A gasp rippled through the crowd. Piper gasped too.

'Tantalus! No wonder he's always chasing food! He was-'

'Short story please,' Leo said hurriedly.

'Forbidden to eat it as punishment,' Piper finished with a scowl.

'Wow,' remarked Leo. 'Wha'd he do to get that?'

'Short story,' replied Piper, and glued her eyes onto the TV, just to see a black screen appear to signify the end of the clip.

'You guys just missed Tantalus giving the three of them kitchen duty because of Percy Jackson's comment,' Jason said, smirking. 'Nasty, huh?'

'Well, we've already figured out he's totally impertinent,' Leo pointed out. 'What in Hades will that dude do next?'

Nobody had time to reply, because suddenly a new picture started up. They saw a line of chariots again. This time, however, the video started just as Percy Jackson got into the chariot and Chiron blew the whistle. The chariots sped off.

'Percy and Annabeth are riding together this time,' Piper said. 'They should be a good match.'

'What?' Leo spluttered.

Piper went bright red. 'I meant for the race! Athena created chariots and Poseidon made horses!'

The three of them fell silent. Percy was driving their paired chariot and had driven up behind the golden Apollo one. Beside him, Annabeth knocked away a weighted net. Suddenly, the Apollo fighter threw something at one of their wheels. It shattered some of the spokes and the chariot wobbled.

'I thought they were going to win,' Jason said, surprised. 'I mean they should, right? It's like the best team for chariot racing.'

'And Clarisse is fighting with the Stolls,' Piper agreed.

'You're mine!' the Apollo camper yelled at Annabeth.

'Yeah, right,' Piper snorted.

The Annabeth on-screen said the exact same thing and Leo nudged her, grinning. Piper couldn't help but smile back, especially when Annabeth threw a javelin at the golden chariot and it hit the bleachers.

'Nice hit,' she said.

'I thought you said the golden chariot was beautiful,' Jason smirked.

Piper shrugged. 'Shut up sparky, I'm voting for Annabeth and Percy now.'

'Piper!'

Piper just grinned and pointed to the TV. On it, Beckendorf had put some kind of machine into Percy and Annabeth's chariot that pulled himself forwards while they were dragged back.

'Go Hephaestus gizmos!' Leo cried, pumping his fist.

Nobody replied; too caught up in the race. Piper leaned forwards to see Percy and Annabeth switch places. Percy fought with Beckendorf until he threw something into their chariot.

'Greek fire!' Leo exclaimed.

Percy seemed distracted. Suddenly, he hit his watch and a shield exploded out of it. It knocked Beckendorf back and then Percy slammed his shield against Beckendorf's sword. It shattered. Percy slammed his shield in the Hephaestus demigod's chest and he tumbled to the dirt.

'Giant shield,' Leo said. 'Nice.'

'Nobody plays nice, do they?' Piper laughed. 'It's each demigod to him or herself.'

'It's chariot racing Beauty Queen,' said Leo, and Piper punched his arm.

On-screen, Percy flipped the Greek fire pouch out of the chariot and back into the Hephaestus cabin. Jason laughed loudly and when Leo glared at him, he just shrugged and grinned.

Then the Athena/Poseidon chariot flew past the finish line and the crowd roared. Annabeth, however, pulled the reins to a stop and faced the crowd.

'Hold up! Listen! It wasn't just us! We couldn't have done it without somebody else!'

'What is she-' Leo began, but Piper shushed him and turned up the volume.

'We couldn't have won this race or gotten the Fleece or saved Grover or anything!'

'So _those two _went on a quest to get it!' Piper exclaimed, remembering seeing the fleece when she had first arrived. This time, Leo shushed her.

'Lots of Jason references today,' Jason said to her with a wink.

'That was the first Jason though,' Piper replied, leaning back into his arm with a smile.

'Tyson, my baby brother!' Percy yelled on the TV and the crowd cheered as Tyson blushed loudly.

Then Annabeth planted a kiss straight on Percy's cheek and the crowd went wild. Piper chuckled as she saw Percy's slightly shocked face.

The Athena cabin – Piper could tell they were the Athena cabin now – mobbed Percy, Annabeth and Tyson, lifting them onto their shoulders and carrying them to the winners platform. Chiron stood there with laurel wreaths and a smile.

'It's kind of cute how the Athena cabin basically adopted Percy, isn't it?' Piper said aloud. Nobody said anything, so she continued. 'I mean, they were worried sick more than any other cabin and look just now, they lifted him onto their shoulders. I mean, because Percy doesn't have a cabin … '

Piper glanced round to see Jason and Leo both looking at her weirdly. She sighed, rolled her eyes and grabbed the remote as the screen went black.

'Let's just carry on watching, yeah?'

_Wow, the longest thing I've ever written in one sitting. Please thank me and review! I'll love you forever!_


	4. Falling off Cliffs

**Wow! Okay, first thing to say to you guys… just WOW. I am OVERWHELMED by the response this has received, and we're only three chapters in. I'd love to write down the name of every single person who put this story (or me, thank you!) on alert or favourite. And then I'd like to thank all of those who reviewed, because it gives me so much motivation to keep writing and I love you for it (even you anon reviewers, thank you!). **

**Which then leads me onto point two – I am SO sorry for not having updated in almost two months! Exam season got in the way majorly and I just couldn't find the time to give you a proper, full-length and quality update. I hope this makes up for it, sorry again.**

A Hunter's Home Movie

This time the Stolls' message was short and brief. Both twins appeared in front of the tripod, Travis in the background looking equal parts shifty and annoyed. Connor leant up close to the camera, his whole face covering the screen.

"I think there's such a thing as an extreme close-up," Leo commented.

"Do you not think you're too close?" Travis's voice floated from behind his brother.

Leo nodded approvingly at the screen. Piper couldn't hold back a snort, but she managed to school her features into a perfectly innocent expression when Leo looked at her.

"There's no such thing as an extreme close-up," Connor replied.

"Leo, you are just like them!" Piper couldn't help but say this time.

"An extremely bad sense of humour, terrible prankster, strange," Jason rattled the points off, counting on his fingers.

"Strange?" Leo repeated.

"Fine," said Jason, a grin spreading across his face. Leo smiled too, until Jason's next words: "Only slightly strange."

"I'm not-"

"Ssh," Piper interrupted quickly, before they decided to start bantering even louder. "I'd like to watch this clip, please."

The boys quietened, albeit Leo with a "yes, your highness". Piper scowled lightly as the black screen flashed up onto the TV, having already missed most of the introduction. But when the eta symbol appeared again she just couldn't stop herself.

She turned to Leo. "What do you mean 'your highness'?"

Leo smirked, obviously glad she had asked. "Well, you are a Beauty _Queen_, right?"

"Leo!" Piper groaned, now regretting it. She grabbed a cushion from underneath her and flung it in his direction.

Leo caught it and launched it backwards. Piper ducked and it hit Jason in the face. He was about to throw it back when he caught the look on Piper's face, wisely choosing to drop it instead.

"Let's just watch the movie," he suggested weakly.

Piper nodded her confirmation. Leo stuck his tongue out at Jason, until Piper whacked his arm and he faced the TV screen again. Because of their antics, they had missed the introduction and now the first few seconds of the clip. But they all turned resolutely back to watch it again.

The footage they were seeing was shaky, as if someone was running. Trees flashed past at an incredible speed and behind they could hear even more people following. And then there came the sound of a hunting horn.

Piper heard Jason's breath hitch a little. "That's the Hunters of Artemis."

"You think Thalia will be with them?" Leo asked, before frowning. "Wait, stupid question."

The picture changed; the trees changing into grass and a cliff instead. They saw a brief glimpse of a few people and Jason grabbed the remote, pausing it to take a closer look.

"Whoa," Leo said suddenly.

He pointed to a monster on-screen. He was that weird mix of human and animals that only Greek monsters could be: the face of a human, the body of a lion and a giant, leathery, scorpion-like tail covered with spikes.

"It's a manticore," Piper breathed. "I've read about those."

Leo jabbed a finger at Piper. "How are you not Athena's kid?"

Piper blushed. Truth was, she had wanted to be a child of Athena when she had first come to camp. Now with Drew not abusing her senior councillor right however, she found being a child of Aphrodite wasn't all bad.

"Look!" Jason said suddenly. "It's Thalia."

They all turned again and indeed, there was Thalia. However, she wasn't fighting or being all warrior-like in that scene. Instead, she was crouching beside a dark-haired boy on the floor, while said boy was holding a shield over their heads.

"Percy Jackson," Leo said. "That dude is _everywhere_."

"He was the leader of the camp, Leo," Piper reminded him.

Jason, meanwhile, was studying his sister. "She looks different."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"Like …" Jason frowned. "She had this kind of glow around her, when we last met. I think it must've been the immortality. She doesn't look like that here."

There were a few moments of silence as the three of them wondered about Thalia's immortality glow not glowing. And then they saw the others: Annabeth standing by the cliff-edge between a boy and a girl who were most definitely siblings.

"That's Nico!" Leo cried suddenly.

"What?"

"Look, that short kid who seems to be fiddling with something." Leo pointed at the screen again, directing Piper's attention to the boy.

"Oh my gods," she breathed. "It is!"

Jason squinted at him. "Well, I guess Thalia's not the only one who looks different."

"Remember that time he came into the council meeting?" Piper said. "He was wearing black and had a sword and was kinda scary."

Leo grinned. "I guess he changed then."

He had. Piper looked in disbelief at the boy Nico on the screen. He wasn't wearing black, he didn't have his Stygian iron sword hanging by his side and his face was mostly clear of all the seriousness it usually held. In fact, he looked like a totally different person. A totally different person who seemed to be playing with a figurine.

And then her eyes slid to the girl next to him. "So that's Nico's sister?"

"Bianca, right?" Leo offered.

"I've heard stuff about her," Jason said, sitting forwards. "When people talk about the war, you know? Not much, just that she died."

"Poor Nico," Piper said softly. "No wonder he went so …" She trailed off.

"Angsty?" said Leo, eyebrows raised.

Piper scowled at him, then turned to Jason. "Play it then. Let's see what in Hades is going on."

"What in Hades," Jason repeated with a smile. "You've picked up on the curses people round here use."

"Naughty Pipes," Leo grinned, but fell silent at her look again.

She gestured to Jason, who hit play on the remote. All of a sudden, the TV came alive again. On screen they saw a sudden flash of silver and there was an arrow embedded in the manticore's shoulder.

"Spikes!" Leo cried out, just as the manticore released a volley of spikes.

Just as they were about to hit whoever was shooting the arrows, another flash of silver appeared. And then the spikes were cut in half, struck down in mid-air by the arrows.

"That's accurate," Jason said approvingly.

And then Percy Jackson leapt forwards and tried to stab at the manticore with his sword. It was a bit of a stupid move, in retrospect. However he must have thought the monster was dazed, because he was pulling the arrow out of his shoulder with a roar.

They saw the back of Percy Jackson as he jumped, but the manticore simply dodged and slammed his scorpion-tail into the boy, shoving him aside.

Leo winced. "That's gotta hurt."

And then the Hunters emerged, dozens of girls in their silvery clothes, with wolves trotting at their heels. Piper was reminded of the last time they had met.

"They're good," she said. "Aren't they?"

"Very," Jason agreed.

"It's a pack of hot chicks fighting monsters," Leo said. "They kind of have to be good."

"The Hunters!" Annabeth had called from on screen.

And then Thalia, beside Percy, rolled her eyes. "Oh, wonderful."

Piper frowned. "She doesn't sound happy."

"Maybe she doesn't like being rescued?" said Leo, throwing Jason a glance. And then his eyebrows shot up. "Wait, she's not even a Hunter!"

"Of course she's a Hunter!" Jason replied. "She was with the Hunters that time-oh!"

"What?" Piper asked, feeling distinctly left out. "What are you talking about?"

"She doesn't have the immortality glow thing," Leo told her. "And she doesn't have the whole Hunter outfit."

Jason tilted his head, eyes studying his sister intently. "I think this was from before she was a Hunter."

"Oh."

She looked back at the screen, where the manticore was wailing something about Ancient Laws. One of the Hunters had come into view – she looked about thirteen, but exuded an aura of power. Piper frowned, having seen her somewhere before …

"Artemis!" Leo shouted. "That's Artemis! Remember, that video of the throne room?"

Piper recalled Artemis changing into a girl for a brief second, then nodded. She faced Leo. "You're on good form today, aren't you?"

Leo grinned. "What can I say? Terribly smart, me."

"Shush," Jason hissed, and the two of them watched the clip again like children being told-off.

The manticore was growling something. "If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!" And then he lunged at Percy Jackson and Thalia.

Jason cried out "No!" at the same time as Annabeth did on-screen. Annabeth, however, charged the manticore.

"Get back half-blood!" It was a girl's voice from somewhere off-screen. Piper had a feeling this was the girl with the camera. "Get out of the line of fire!"

But Annabeth had jumped onto the manticore, plunging her knife deep into his back. And then the monster was howling, turn around in circles and trying to shake her off.

"She's brave," Piper muttered, almost to herself.

And then the girl with the camera spoke again. "Fire!"

"No!" Percy Jackson yelled on-screen.

"They'll hit Annabeth!" Leo cried.

"They have better aim that that, surely?" mumbled Jason.

And they did. Arrows hit the manticore in the chest and the neck, but none of them hit Annabeth. Piper breathed a quick sigh of relief before spotting another danger.

"They're too close to the cliff!" she yelled, jumping up and pointing rather dramatically.

The boys paid her no heed, too engrossed in what was happening on the TV. They knew Annabeth was fine – she was here now, after all. But it didn't stop the fact that whenever this clip was filmed, she had been in terrible danger.

The manticore was wailing again. "You will pay!"

And then, with Annabeth still clinging onto him, he fell. The monster vanished from sight, plummeting straight over the cliff edge. Piper felt a sudden urge to reach out and grab Annabeth. Apparently Percy felt the same.

"Annabeth!" he screamed, diving forwards.

But then there was machine-gun fire. It seemed to come from the sky, and as the Huntress with the camera took a few steps backwards, they saw it coming from a helicopter. Percy Jackson dived backwards for cover, but the Hunters remained standing.

Then Artemis spoke. "Mortals are not allowed to witness my hunts." And with that calm statement, she thrust a hand out to the helicopter and it turned to …

"Ravens?" Leo asked incredulously.

"I suppose it's better than being killed," Piper muttered, still slightly on edge.

Jason shook his head. "If this is what Thalia got up to before she even became a Hunter …"

Piper smiled sympathetically and placed a hand on his. "I'm sure she's perfectly fine, Jason. She knows how to look after herself."

And then the camera was turning, facing Percy and Thalia on the ground. In the background Nico and his sister still stood, as well as the satyr Grover. All of them looked pretty scared. The girl with the camera moved forwards until she was standing directly in front of Thalia.  
>"You," she said, and there was no mistaking the distaste in her voice.<p>

"Zoe Nightshade," Thalia replied, in much the same tone, but with a hint of anger. "Perfect timing, as usual."

"Well," Leo muttered. "They hate each other."

The girl called Zoe – the one with the camera – seemed to look up at the rest of the group. "Four half-bloods and a satyr, my Lady."

"Do you think she's Artemis's lieutenant?" Piper said thoughtfully. "I mean, she seems to be shouting orders a lot."

"And it could explain why Thalia doesn't like her much," agreed Leo.

Jason frowned slightly. "Why the camera though?"

Piper shrugged, but Leo had an answer again. "To keep track of the hunts, maybe? I mean, Artemis must be pretty busy. Maybe she likes to know what monsters her Hunters are going after."

"Well done Leo," Piper said with a smirk. "Great sleuthing today."

"Why thank you, Beauty Queen," Leo grinned.

Because of their banter, again they had missed some of the video. They looked back to see Percy Jackson being held down by a couple Hunters.

"Mighty hero indeed," Leo said with a snort.

"You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," Artemis was saying.

Piper's eyes widened. "He would do that? For Annabeth?"

She barely noticed as the camera – and Zoe – went forwards, closer to Percy. Instead she was thinking about how _sad _Annabeth looked almost all of the time, the hidden tremor in her voice that desperately needed Percy back.

"I hope we find him soon," Piper whispered, almost to herself.

"What?" Jason asked.

Piper shook her head. She faced the TV screen again only to find the picture fading into black, signifying the end of the clip. And then the Stolls twins appeared again.

"It ends quite abruptly," Connor said.

Travis nodded in agreement. "Very abruptly. Because it doesn't exactly belong to us."

Jason snorted. "Nothing really belongs to them."

"You're telling me," Leo muttered and Piper knew he was thinking about his ship again.

"I think it may have got a little damaged," Travis said on-screen. "In um …"

"Transit," offered his brother.

"Yeah, transit, that's it."

"So now we'll just have to move on," Connor said, with a cheeky grin. He looked down at his list again. "What's next?"

He was about to read out the next item when a horn sounded. Piper glanced at her watch and saw it was time to eat. Suddenly realising she was starving, she grabbed the remote off Jason and stopped the DVD, before jumping to her feet. She was halfway to the door before she realised the boys weren't following her.

"C'mon!" she cried. "I'm hungry!"

"Time for tofu?" Leo offered.

Piper nodded seriously. "Definitely time for tofu."

Leo jumped to his feet too. "Well, I also happen to be starving." He turned to Jason. "Come on mate. We'll carry on watching it afterwards.

Jason waved a hand at them. "You guys go on. I'm not so hungry."

Piper stopped and turned to him, frowning. "Are you okay, Jason?"

"I'm fine," nodded Jason, giving her a small grin. "Just … collecting my thoughts, you know?"

Piper studied him intently for another second, before she nodded and grabbed Leo's arm, leading the way to the dining pavilion.

**So, you like it? REVIEW please! What's good, what's bad, what you did and did not enjoy … I LOVE hearing from you and I hope you know how much I appreciate it. (:**

**-SPenned x**


	5. Just Dinner

**First off, once again, THANK YOU for the reviews/favorites/alerts on the last chapter. You guys are amazing and I love you – it's given me all the motivation to write that much faster.**

**Second, this is a sort of filler, but bear with me, because the next chapter is nearly finished and will be up VERY SOON I PROMISE.**

* * *

><p><span>Percy Jackson Is Everywhere<span>

Dinner was quiet. Piper got her food, scraped some of it into the brazier for Aphrodite and sat down at her table eating all with her mind elsewhere. Around her, her siblings talked loudly, sharing what was on their plates, laughing. At one point Lacy, beside her, tried to draw her into the conversation, but Piper merely smiled and declined. She looked around at Leo, who didn't seem as preoccupied as her, but he wasn't his usual telling-bad-jokes self either. She wondered if he too was thinking about the videos they had seen.

Because wow, _Percy Jackson_. He sure got into everything around here, as Leo had said. Killing Medusa, fighting manticores, winning chariot races; all in a day's work, she supposed. And not to mention the fact that he had probably saved the gods and Olympus. Piper took a sip of water absently, wondering what Percy Jackson was really like. It was all very well hearing about his adventures, but what about the boy himself?

That thought, of course, made Piper turn and look to Annabeth. The blonde girl was sitting quietly at the Athena table, not even bothering to join in the chatter. She was eating normally, but her eyes seemed faraway and every so often she would pull out a notebook and jot something down. Probably something to do with the Argo: Annabeth was the only person more obsessed than Leo about that ship. Piper felt a pang of sadness. She could _feel _Annabeth's despair at Percy's absence and knew the two were closer than simply boyfriend/girlfriend. They were in love. And from the videos they had seen, Piper didn't doubt it. Some part of her hoped she would find love like that. That line of thinking led, of course, to Jason.

He had looked so hopelessly lost when they had left him, but she didn't doubt he needed time on his own. This Percy Jackson was the guy he had, quite frankly, replaced, after all. And if the videos were anything to go by, it looked like a damn hard job.

Before Piper knew it, dinner was over and everyone was packing their plates away. Piper glanced over to the Zeus table: empty. Jason was sitting in the Big House. And then the Poseidon and Hades tables: both empty too, one occupant in a possibly hostile Roman camp and the other who-knows-where searching for him. Piper looked around at her siblings and felt a pang of regret; it must be pretty hard, being the only child of a god. Lots of responsibility. Piper already felt slightly nervous under the responsibility under being a demigod of the prophecy, so she had no idea what Jason or Percy Jackson would be feeling.

And then suddenly someone bumped into her, breaking her out of her thoughts. Piper stumbled backwards slightly and tripped over her own feet, dropping her plate. Thankfully, none of the un-eaten food fell on her.

"I'm so sorry!" A hand reached down to help her and Piper realised it was the Oracle, Rachel. "I didn't see you! I was going to go and talk to Annabeth, because of course she's-"

"Rachel," Piper interrupted calmly, an amused smile on her face as she looked up at the redhead. "It's okay, it's fine."

Rachel grinned up at Piper and the younger girl suddenly realised what she was wearing. Ripped jeans, a t-shirt that looked like it was promoting a charity and paint-splattered trainers. A far cry from her expensive school uniform.

Rachel saw Piper's gaze and chuckled. "Luckily, even gives holidays."

Piper smiled slightly too. "I kinda like this version better."

"Me too," Rachel enthused. "Although you should've seen me before. One day, when Percy came to talk to me, I was doing a protest for- well, that doesn't matter. But I was _entirely _silver. I kept dropping glitter everywhere; felt like I was shedding."

Piper should have taken lots of things from that, but the only thing she could think to say was, "_You _knew Percy before?"

Rachel seemed slightly taken aback. "Yes. He's kind of the reason I am the Oracle now."

"What happened?" Piper asked eagerly.

To her surprise, Rachel chuckled. "He tried to kill me because I sneezed."

Piper's confusion must have shown on her face, because Rachel's grin widened. She opened her mouth to talk then looked at something behind Piper. Piper spun – foot accidentally standing in her fallen plate – and saw Annabeth hurrying away from the dining pavilion.

By the time Piper had scraped all the food off her shoe, Rachel was already hurrying away. "It's a long story," she called back to Piper. "Come find me in my cave sometime!"

Piper stared after the redhead for a moment, before looking round and realising she was the last one left. Quickly, she scooped her plate up and dumped it with the others, before hurrying back to the Big House, ready to blurt out her conversation with Rachel.

When Piper got to the rec room, however, she found Leo and Jason sat on the sofa laughing their heads off. She frowned slightly as she walked in, the words stuck in her throat.

Leo looked up, scooting to the side and making room for her. "Took your sweet time, Beauty Queen."

"Yeah, well, I was talking to Rachel," she replied, with a sniff.

"Anything interesting?" Jason asked.

Piper scowled and grabbed for the remote, but Leo got there first and held it out of her grip. "Aw, you're in a huff 'cos you missed my joke, aren't you?"

"Leo," Piper whined, reaching for it again, but he held it behind him. "Give!"

"I'll give it to you once you tell us what was so interesting about what Rachel said," Leo answered.

Piper, however, didn't like this course of action. So she swatted Leo around the back of the head and reached for the remote again, well aware that she was clambering all over Leo with her maybe-boyfriend right beside her. She didn't much care when she grabbed the remote off Leo and sat back in her place, triumphantly.

"You know," Jason said conversationally. "I would've thought you'd just Charmspeak him."

Piper glanced at Jason, then Leo, her mouth forming a slight 'o'. Then she groaned, sighed and stretched her legs, curling up beside Jason again.

"Rachel," she began, deciding to change the topic. "Told me that it was Percy Jackson who introduced her into … our world."

Jason's eyebrows shot up but Leo didn't look all that shocked. "That's not really that surprising."

"Isn't it?" Jason asked. "She's the Oracle. She's important."

Leo shrugged and grinned. "Yeah, but let's face it, Percy Jackson is like, the _ultimate hero _of this camp. He's probably somehow involved in every story there is."

"You've got a point," Piper agreed.

They all sat quietly for a few moments, caught up in their thoughts, before Piper suddenly realised she had a remote in her hands. She cranked up the volume and hit play. The boys beside her were jerked out of their daydreams and they all stared at the TV expectantly.

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><p>'<strong>VERY SOON I PROMISE' will be (obviously) helped along by all those wonderful reviews I love you for. *hint,hint*<strong>


	6. A Big Three Fight

**Again, _thank you immensely to all who review. _Reviews make me ridiculously happy and produce more chapters - like this one, which is quite long!**

**Also, just a few things. Kudos to Reading-and-Bubbling who recommended the on-screen speech be put into italics (I actually didn't figure this out for myself *facepalm*) and also to emmalunajackson33, who sparked off my ideas for this chapter (even though she may not know it!).**

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><p><span>The Prophecy Kids<span>

Connor Stoll was frowning at his list. "Montage." He looked at his brother. "What is a montage?"

Travis shrugged, then his eyes lit up. "Oh! It's some kind of … film … thing."

"A film thing," Connor repeated dubiously.

"Yup," Travis agreed, snatching the piece of paper off him. "Wait, why does it say montage here?"

"That's kind of what I was asking you …"

"Well, it says 'montage of the Big Three kids'." Travis frowned up at Connor. "Who added this to the list?"

"I don't know," Connor replied, folding his arms across his chest. "Probably one of those Aphrodite kids."

Piper bristled. "'Those Aphrodite kids'? Oh, we will be having _words_, Connor Stoll."

Leo moved away from her in mock horror. When she glared at him he shrugged and said, "You scare me."

"Well, why didn't you take it off?" Travis demanded of his brother.

"I didn't know!" Connor exclaimed. "Wait, why didn't _you _take it off?" He smirked. "Too busy messing around with Katie were y-? Ow!"

Travis – after punching Connor – turned to the camera and said, "Enjoy!"

The screen went black. Piper, Jason and Leo exchanged glances. Piper could tell she had a 'who let those two out of the crazy hospital?' look on her face. Although maybe that was what Leo's looked like? To be honest, she was still a bit miffed about the 'Aphrodite kids' comment.

The Eta symbol flashed up and Jason turned to Piper. "What _is _a montage?"

"Yeah, hey, Beauty Queen! Your Dad's in like, a billion movies."

"Not that many Leo," Piper assured him, before twisting a braid around her finger nervously. "Um, it's kind of a film thing. Basically lots of clips one after the other. Usually with music."

"So montage of the Big Three kids," Jason said with narrowed eyes.

"Oh no! We're not going to have sappy music and pictures of Percy Jackson, are we?" Leo cried.

Piper turned narrowed eyes to him. "It _wasn't _an Aphrodite kid."

Leo held up his hands in surrender and gestured to the screen again. A picture had shown up. It was showing the forest where they played Capture the Flag. There seemed to be two teams on each side of the river – one comprised fully of girls, the other of demigods with their bronze armour.

"One whole team are the Hunters, aren't they?" Jason asked, squinting at the screen.

Of course Jason would notice that. "And look, there's Thalia!"

"She doesn't look happy," Leo commented.

Piper couldn't help but agree. Thalia Grace looked livid, blue sparks flickering around her armour, her hair slightly bigger than it normally would be. She looked scary; Piper wondered how Jason would look if he were mad,

"_Percy Jackson!"_

"Oh no," Leo murmured quietly, watching as she marched across to the black-haired boy beside the creek.

"They're two children of the Big Three," said Piper, eyes involuntarily sliding over to Jason. "If they start fighting …"

She cringed back suddenly as Thalia's shield came into view. It was pretty frightening – the giant head of a gorgon. From the way the camera jerked backwards too, whoever was holding it no doubt felt the same.

"He's not even moved," Jason said incredulously, pointing to Percy Jackson.

"_What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?"_

"Damn it, she sounds mad," Leo muttered.

"That's Aegis," Piper remembered suddenly. "Well, it looks like Aegis. I reckon it's modelled after the real one."

The boys didn't pay much attention to her Greek mythology. She couldn't blame them, because now Percy Jackson had stood tall to face her. His hands were in fists and he was waving a flag in her face.

"_You had too many on you!"_

"_Oh, so it's my fault?"_

"_I didn't say that."_

"_Argh!"_

Piper gasped as Thalia stepped forwards and pushed Percy Jackson. He didn't just stumble backwards, however; he flew backwards almost ten feet and landed in the water. The campers in view of the camera looked shocked – some of the Hunters were trying not to laugh.

Piper wondered absently who was holding the camera. It couldn't have been a camper. Maybe it was one of the nymphs.

"_Sorry! I didn't mean to-"_

Thalia's apology was cut short as a wave blasted from the creek and drenched her. She stood there, gawping and dripping wet, as Percy Jackson stood up in the water, looking furious.

"_Yeah, I didn't mean to, either."_

"It's harder to decide who's angrier," Leo said conversationally.

Thalia was held out her spear and Jason cringed slightly. "The damage they could do if they don't control their tempers …"

"They've matured, I'm sure, Jason," Piper said soothingly, patting the hand curled round her.

"_You want some, Seaweed Brain?"_

"Okay Thalia's definitely furious," Leo pointed out.

"Stop deciding who's angrier, Leo," Piper said suddenly, with a grin.

Leo flushed pink slightly. Piper wondered if he still had a crush on Thalia. Leo was like that. Sometimes she kind of envied his ability to say it like it was. She still hadn't told Jason exactly how she felt about him yet.

On-screen, Percy Jackson raised his sword. He looked deadly when he shouted, _"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"_

"Seaweed Brain's what Annabeth calls him!" Piper remembered suddenly. That was probably why he looked frustrated too – it was Annabeth's pet name for him.

"Pinecone Face?" Jason repeated, making a face. "They have weird nicknames for each other."

Piper hid a smile. She couldn't deny the fact that Annabeth having a nickname for Percy was kinda cute. She wasn't going to say anything though – Leo would just tease her.

But suddenly, on-screen, Thalia yelled. Piper's eyes slid back to the TV screen and watched, aghast, as she raised her spear. Lightning hit it and then slammed straight into Percy Jackson's chest. He sat down hard, still smoking slightly.

"And to think they're friends …" Jason muttered.

"_Thalia!" _even Chiron was shouting now, although Piper couldn't really blame him. _"That is enough!"_

"Enough indeed," Piper agreed. She was feeling on-edge all of a sudden. They were the children of Zeus and Poseidon. If they _did _end up fighting, properly, the consequences could be disastrous.

And then Percy Jackson stood up. He wasn't exactly defenceless though, because with his son-of-Poseidon powers the whole creek rose up with him. It was probably the most terrifying thing Piper had ever seen.

"Holy …" Beside her, Leo swore under his breath in Spanish.

Piper couldn't agree more. The whole body of water had risen up. It formed a giant funnel cloud beside Percy Jackson, almost like a tornado made out of icy water. From the campers faces behind him, they found it scary too. Many were scrambling backwards, their faces shadowed by the swirling mass.

Even Thalia looked a little scared, glancing up at the water and then Percy's furious face. Then Chiron stepped forwards and Piper, shocked, realised he was _pleading._

"_Percy!"_

Percy Jackson didn't look like he was going to listen. He was halfway through raising his hand when something over Thalia's shoulder obviously caught his attention. The water fell back into the bed with a mighty splash. Even Thalia looked surprised that he had stopped and she turned to look too. The camera jerked that way and for a second they saw some kind of mummified figure before the screen went black.

Piper released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. She turned to look at Jason, whose face was white. For a second Piper felt sorry for him. _That _was the guy he'd replaced. He probably thought he had no chance.

"Jason," she began, but Leo cut her off.

"Did you _see _that? By all the gods, I thought he was going to kill her!"

"Leo!" Piper cried. "I was going to-" She cut herself off before she could tell him she'd been about to comfort Jason. Her maybe-boyfriend probably wouldn't like that.

Leo shook his head in wonder. "Well, Beauty Queen, you got yourself one talented boyfriend there. If Jason can do stuff like _that_ …"

He trailed off, losing Piper at the word boyfriend. She glanced at Jason to see how he took it, but he was looking at Leo curiously. She felt a tingle up her spine and grinned with happiness.

"Don't count yourself out, mate," Jason was saying to Leo. "None of the other Seven would be able to conjure fire, I'm sure of it."

Leo sighed and clicked his finger, a spark appearing on the end of his finger for a moment like it was a lighter. He fell silent and Piper realised he was probably thinking about that dreaded line of the Prophecy – 'to storm or fire the world must fall'.

She reached out a comforting hand, deciding Leo needed it more than Jason. "It'll turn out fine, Leo."

Leo looked up, gave her a brief smile and then gestured to the TV. "So, what do you reckon is next?"

"One thing we can discern from that video," Piper said, sticking a finger in the air. "It was definitely _not _a montage."

"It seems like some kind of list of the Big Three kids powers, though," Jason muttered thoughtfully. "So who would that be?"

"Percy Jackson and your sister," Leo said immediately. "And that Nico kid, I reckon."

"They're the only Greek ones," Piper nodded.

She was about to add more when words started scrolling on the screen. She inched forwards eagerly.

"Series of shots about the Big Three kids, Percy, Thalia and Nico," Leo read aloud, before flashing Piper and Jason a smug grin.

Piper ignored it and read the next bit: "Compiled by Lucy and Lily Thomas." She felt her heart sink a little and risked a glance over to Leo, who was smirking. "Ok, fine, it's Aphrodite kids!"

Leo's smirk simply grew more pronounced. So Piper reached out an arm and punched him in the shoulder, hard. He scowled immediately, rubbing it with an affronted expression. Before he could speak, however, Piper put a hand to her lips and pointed at the TV.

A picture grew onto the screen, expanding, until Piper realised it was exactly what they had just seen. The forest, Thalia Grace and Percy Jackson, fighting.

"What-?" Leo began, confused, but Piper shushed him.

Some music started in the background. Piper didn't really recognise it, but somehow it seemed to fit. And then the clips – each of them amazing her as they went on.

First off was Thalia with her lightning strike, followed by Percy Jackson and his icy funnel cloud. They couldn't hear any dialogue – the music covered it.

And then they saw the younger Nico again. Beside him was Percy Jackson. He seemed to be fighting off …

"Skeletons?" Jason asked incredulously.

They were indeed. He was fighting like a madman, but the skeletons simply kept reforming, coming back. Piper knew with some certainty that he wouldn't be able to defeat the invincible foe. And then the younger Nico clapped his hands over his ears and shouted. Percy Jackson rolled out of the way as a crack appeared suddenly in the ground. Flames burst from the fissure and then the skeleton warriors fell in.

"_That_," Leo said loudly. "Is freakin' scary."

Piper made a noise of assent. She was slightly in shock. If that was what Nico was doing when he was ten years old … She shuddered to think of the enemies he faced.

And then she heard a few lines from the lyrics: _"…And the rest be sent to hell, where they always have belonged. Cold hearts…"_

Piper couldn't help but think it was very fitting. Nico's Dad was the Lord of the Underworld. And the words – while slightly foreboding – also seemed to fit along with the clips they were being shown. Percy, Thalia and Nico were three very powerful half-bloods. For the first time, Piper felt no worry for Percy Jackson alone at the Roman camp. After seeing what they had already, she felt confident he could handle anything he faced – and she hadn't even met him.

Her attention reverted back to the DVD and they saw Nico again. He looked older, somehow. He was wearing black and standing over a pit, chanting something in a strange language. Behind him was Percy Jackson again, only Annabeth, Grover and Tyson the Cyclops were there too. In front of them stood a girl who looked remarkably like Nico.

"Bianca," Piper breathed.

"I wonder how she died," Jason muttered beside her.

"Is it just me," Leo said slowly. "Or are they like … summoning the dead?"

Piper should've told him that Nico _was_ the son of the death god, but she shivered instead. "That's really creepy."

The scene changed – again. There seemed to be a battle around them. Swords clashing with swords, fire in the background, volleys of arrows flying. Directly in front, however, Nico was standing. He raised his sword – that strange one he had – muttered something and a giant fissure opened in the ground.

Piper watched – morbidly fascinated – as a dozen undead skeletons crawled out of the ground. They seemed to be dressed in tattered, decaying military clothing. As they watched, the warriors (some were even on horses) charged the monsters in front of Nico (females with twin snake trunks as legs Piper remembered as _dracaenae_).

And now, in front of them they saw Thalia, firing arrows at an alarming rate. She seemed to be battling some kind of giant things, with her Hunters around her. The giants looked terrifying – towering over the girls. They had sharp teeth and menacing looks on their faces. Thalia had a crown on her head.

"She's joined the Hunters now," Jason pointed out.

Piper nodded. As they watched, Thalia yelled something and her arrow began crackling with electricity. She released it and it flew to the giant, sparks trailing behind him.

"Well that's powerful," Leo muttered and Piper came to the conclusion that he had _not _got over Thalia.

But Piper was slightly awed by the power of these three teenagers. And the lyrics were suddenly loud again – _"Let's kill tonight"_ – and Piper felt an ominous ripple down her spine. This was power. Pure power. And yet if Gaea ever awoke, she would be even stronger.

Then Percy Jackson was back. He was standing with his back to the camera, but from the slump of his shoulders, Piper could tell he was exhausted. That was probably why she found the fact that he had lifted up an entire river – an entire, frothing, bubbling, churning river – right up into the air rather impressive. Or maybe the feat was just impressive anyway.

Jason and Leo's sudden intakes of breath no doubt thought the same as her. Piper squeezed Jason's hand tight – a silent message that he didn't need to continue comparing himself with Percy Jackson.

But it was probably hard not to, she realised. Because the next thing they saw was Percy Jackson fighting someone else, all swords and quick movements. His fighting skill wasn't the impressive thing here, however. It was the fact that he was standing in the middle of his own personal hurricane.

And then the song ended, the black screen flashed up (accompanied by the words 'Thanks for watching!') and the Eta symbol showed once again. Piper scrabbled for the remote and hit pause. She kind of needed a few moments.

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><p><strong>That was kind of different from the others, but I hope you liked it anyway. I wanted to give the three of them a glimpse of some Big Three powers.<strong>

**Tell me what you did and didn't like (review!). Do you like the italics? What about the length, do you prefer long or short chapters? Is there anything specific you'd like to see? Am I writing well?**

**I love hearing from you. (:**

**-SP x**


	7. There Are Olympian Parties

**I have lots of excuses. But I think you might just want to get on with the story (and this one is a whopper) so um… A/N at the end. *runs***

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><p><span>Relationship Development<span>

It was overwhelming, Piper realised, for _her _to watch what these heroes had done – and could still do. It was overwhelming to know Nico DiAngelo could command un-dead warriors, or Thalia Grace – now granted with immortality and eternal youth – could call down lightning on whomsoever she wished. It was overwhelming for _her _to know that Percy Jackson could create a hurricane, so what must her maybe-boyfriend be feeling?

Thinking of Jason, Piper turned to face him. He hadn't even noticed she had paused the video, staring straight ahead, his eyes wide, mouth slightly open. Then she turned to see how Leo was doing. He was faring slightly better.

As if feeling her gaze, Leo faced her and raised his eyebrows, as if to say 'get this'; Piper couldn't agree more. _These _were the heroes that had overthrown Kronos in the second Titan war. _These _were the heroes who needed _her _and _new recruits _to defeat Gaea. And they were powerful.

Not for the first time, Piper felt a slight shiver of apprehension. If Percy Jackson – a guy who could command his own personal hurricane – and his friends could not defeat Gaea, what hope in Hades did they have?

Piper's eyes drifted back over to the TV screen, where the Eta symbol was just fading. She thought of what she had just seen; the incredible acts of power by those three heroes. Making a mental note to thank her siblings for the video, Piper felt mighty glad that they had Percy Jackson on their side.

Breaking out of her thoughts, Piper looked around at Leo again, who seemed easier to talk to at this moment. "Shall we continue watching?"

"Hey," Leo held up his hands in mock surrender (he did like to be dramatic, Piper thought with a sigh). "You're the one who stopped it in the first place, Beauty Queen."

"I just needed to kind of … absorb it," Piper replied.

All at once, Leo turned serious. "I get what you mean," he nodded. "It's some big stuff."

"Very big," Piper repeated loudly. "That dude made a freakin' _hurricane_!"

Leo stared at Piper. Piper stared back, her hands still slightly raised in the air from where she had demonstrated the creating of a hurricane. Leo blinked and Piper looked at him as if he was crazy. She rotated one of her hands for further emphasis.

"O-kaay," Leo said, giving _her_ a weird look. "I think maybe one more clip and then bed, okay? You look like you could do with some sleep." Piper nodded mutely, wondering whether she had just been insulted. But then Leo peered around her. "Hows your boyfriend holding up?"

"Leo!" Piper cried, blushing fiercely.

Leo grinned at her. "What? It's true. And he's kind of replaced this Percy Jackson, so it might be a bit of a burden, you know?"

Piper narrowed her eyes at Leo. "Since when did you become so perceptive?"

"See!" Leo jabbed a finger in the air triumphantly. "I _can _understand organic life forms."

Piper tilted her head slightly at Leo and they had a brief but intense staring match before Jason interrupted by waving his hand in between their faces.

"Aren't we going to carry on watching?"

Piper exchanged incredulous looks with Leo. "Um, Jason, are you okay?"

Now Jason was giving her weird looks too. Great. "Of course I'm okay," he said. "Why wouldn't I be?" He gestured to the TV. "Come on then, let's find out what's next."

With both Leo and Jason looking at her expectantly, Piper kept her grumbles to herself and pressed play on the remote. The Eta symbol was allowed to finish fading and then Connor and Travis Stoll appeared.

"_Next up is a look at the awesomely amazing and pretty wondrous_-"

"_It's a clip from an Olympus party,_" Travis interrupted his brother. "_After Percy, Thalia and Grover came back from rescuing Annabeth and Artemis_."

Connor folded his arms with a scowl. _"You forgot to mention Bianca's noble sacrifice to save Percy, or Zoe's noble sacrifice to save … Percy? Or Thalia becoming the lietenant of Artemis or-_"

"_Well you weren't going to mention those things either!_" Travis argued, the scowl on his face so identical to his brother's Piper almost laughed aloud.

She would have to find those two after this and congratulate them on being so stupidly funny. Or maybe she wouldn't do that, otherwise they might try and cash in on any drachmas she owed them.

"_I would have!"_ Connor retorted. "_If you'd let me get to it._" Then he glanced at the camera. _"So, yeah, party_." And then he fished a small remote from his pocket, clicked something and the screen went black.

Nobody said anything for a short while as the screen was just black, but the silence didn't feel awkward. In fact, Piper was struck by how close she had become to these two boys in the short space of time they had been friends. She felt like she could rely on them for anything and right now, sitting more-than-friends close to Jason with Leo on the other side, she felt truly happy.

The film started up then and Piper inched forwards a little, eager to see what an Olympian party would look like. And not just that, but Olympus also; she'd heard talk of Annabeth helping to re-design it, but she wanted to see what the home of the gods had looked like before total destruction in the Titan war.

It didn't disappoint.

"Wow," Jason breathed.

Leo clucked his tongue appreciatively. "And they _partied _there?"

Piper chuckled, but her eyes were still stuck to the screen. Someone must have been filming the party, because the camera moved forwards like they were walking. The palace must have been behind the lens, but white and silver gilded steps led down into a courtyard.

The courtyard was heaving with people, dancing to and fro, swinging to the rhythm. Wood nymphs swung in circles together, laughter bubbling from their lips. Satyrs and naiads danced together, many of the satyrs looking about to faint at their good fortune.

"They look like normal kids," Piper said, leaning forwards and pointing to a gaggle of teenagers just leaving the courtyard.

"Nah they don't," Leo responded, almost instantly. "What would normal kids be doing hanging around Olympus?"

"Then who-?" Piper frowned for a second, before it hit her. "Oh! So those are like, minor gods and goddesses?"

"They chose the form of teenagers," said Jason, sounding slightly amused.

"Well youth eternal and all that, right?" Leo grinned. "Besides, I'm sure there's worse things than hanging out with a totally _hot _immortal-"

"Leo!" Piper interrupted, before he could go off on one, a slight giggle escaping her.

Leo only grinned and they both focused on the TV again. The person holding the camera was talking – it sounded like a girl and she must have been a minor goddess.

"_Oh look,"_ she said. _"There's everyone. We're going down to the main party now. Who even dances in the courtyard?"_

There was a slight blur as the girl – or goddess, rather – rushed after the gaggle of gods, then twirls and dips as she dodged around dancing couples and solitary figures and the giant circle of twisting wood nymphs. The goddess emerged onto a road.

She stopped for a second, panning the camera round and Piper saw a chariot crashed on the side of the road. It lay on its side, two pegasi in front of it, snickering and whinnying.

"Flying horses," Leo muttered, but Piper figured he must be talking to himself, because he was eyeing them with fascination. "The wingspan must be longer than the-"

"Can you hear that?" This time it was Jason who interrupted his ramblings.

Piper frowned, but the goddess wasn't saying anything. "What are you-?" she began, and then she heard it.

Music, in the background. On-screen, the minor goddess started jogging down the main road and the music grew steadily louder until Piper could hear it clearly. It was _Cherokee _music. Similar to jazz, but the flute tune so clearly heard was like how her Grandpa used to play it – and tell of it being played.

Piper froze. What were they doing playing Cherokee music at an Olympian party years ago? Jason seemed to notice her stiff posture, because he placed a hand on her arm and gently asked what was wrong.

"It's Cherokee music," she hissed, but loud enough so that Leo turned and frowned. "Why-"

"No it isn't," Leo said to her. "It's an old Spanish song my Mom used to sing."

Piper opened her mouth to say that actually she could hear quite clearly, when the music changed and suddenly it was pop, like the backing theme to one of her Dad's movies. She frowned.

"Okay, it's changed."

Leo shook his head. "No it hasn't."

They both looked to Jason, who shrugged and gave a small smile. Piper couldn't help but notice it was his one-sided smile, when only the side with the cute little scar curled upwards. He looked amazing.

"I just hear normal songs," he said and gave a faint blush.

His blue eyes met Piper's for a second before they flashed away to the TV again. Piper was about to inquire further when the goddess' commentary interrupted.

"_It's the park now,"_ she said. _"They should be around her somewhere."_

While she stopped and searched for her fellows, Piper's eyes widened as she took in the size of the park. Dancing people were dotted around everywhere, all swaying to different rhythms, as though there were a different song on.

"_Crank it up!"_ a good-looking young man in the crowd yelled, to cheers and applause.

The goddess spoke again and Piper could swear she was probably blushing. _"There's … Except he hasn't actually asked me to dance yet. I should probably find the others before …"_

She stood still for a moment longer and the camera drifted sideways. There, Piper saw nine ladies up on a stage playing music with a variety of instruments. She cocked her head, thinking.

"_The Nine Muses are pretty good,"_ the girl was saying again. _"Oh look, something's happened to Clio's guitar."_

While the goddess paused and tried to figure out the problem, Piper clicked her fingers and grinned. "The Nine Muses! My Dad did a film with them in once."

"They err, gave inspiration to artists and stuff, right?" Leo said.

Piper gave a nod of her head. "It figures that they'd be the band."

Jason tilted his head. "And everyone hears something different? Like, whatever they want, right?"

"Must be why they're all dancing weirdly," Piper agreed.

"My kind of party," Leo grinned. "Why wasn't I invited?"

"You didn't even know you were a demigod then, Leo," sighed Piper, rolling her eyes.

"Well then they should invite me to a _different _one!" Leo enthused. "I tell you, this is _definitely _motivation to defeat Gaea."

Piper laughed and looked to Jason, before she saw him looking kind of pale. And then she noticed the determination in his eyes and grasped his hand, giving him a smile. The smile he returned almost made her melt with happiness.

"Percy Jackson!" Leo yelped, pointing to the screen.

Immediately, Piper's eyes turned to the TV again. The goddess had fully immersed herself into the park now. Standing by a fountain that seemed to look like it was flowing with nectar instead of water, stood the dark-haired hero. Beside him a young man Piper recognised.

"He's the one who told them to turn the music up," Leo observed.

Jason frowned. "Is it just me or have we seen him somewhere before?" There was a pause as they all tried to remember and then Jason cried: "It's Apollo!"

"Apollo?" Piper repeated blankly. "Where have we seen him? _Oh_, the throne room, right!"

As she looked over the god of music, Piper thought that the goddess filming hadn't been wrong in getting all tongue-tied when she spotted him. Glancing at Jason for a second though, she decided not to voice this, instead curling her fingers tighter with his.

"_It's thingy again,"_ the girl was saying from behind the camera. _"And he still hasn't asked me to dance. Instead he's talking to that Percy Jackson. A mortal! Instead of me!" _There was a pause._ "Let's see what they're saying."_

The camera inched closer and Piper felt herself grinning slightly at the sneaky move. Then, peeking out from a banquet table crowded with mortal food, the picture zoomed in until they saw Percy Jackson talking awkwardly with the god.

"_You know, Perce,"_ Apollo was saying, in a rather friendly tone. _"I like you. Any time you want archery lessons, all you have to do is-"_

"_Thanks,"_ Percy Jackson interrupted, before realising maybe that was rude and rushing on. _"But seriously, I'm no good at archery."_

"_Ah, nonsense!"_ Apollo cried cheerfully_. "Target practise from the chariot as we fly over the US? Best fun there is!"_

"He's just offered the dude archery lessons from his sun chariot," Leo said, before doing an actual facepalm.

Piper, too, was wondering at that. So the gods hated his impertinence, yet they also seemed to like him quite a bit. Maybe they liked his rudeness. Why else would Apollo be giving him the offer of archery lessons?"

"_Zeus will probably um, kill me if I do any flying," _Percy Jackson mumbled. Before Apollo could intervene, however, he pointed to something behind_. "Oh look, there's Grover! I needed to talk to him about, um-"_ Before even completing the sentence, Percy had flashed the god a weak smile and disappeared into the crowd.

There was a short silence, broken only by the music coming from the party shown on the TV. The goddess muttered the word _"loser"_ under her breath, but it came out loud enough on the camera.

Piper raised her eyebrows. "He must be _really _bad at archery."

The boys both looked at her, but Piper placed a finger to her lips before they could speak a word. The goddess holding the camera was speaking again and it sounded like she was having a rant.

"_So he just stands there and does nothing while that mortal brat is rude and runs off? Why didn't Athena convince the god to kill him? He's an idiot!"_

"Annabeth's mom wanted to kill him?" Jason repeated, eyes wide.

"I'm guessing she doesn't approve of the dating," Leo muttered.

"_Let's go find the brat,"_ the girl behind the camera decided suddenly, as they watched Apollo turn round and snag a wood nymph to dance with.

The camera weaved between people again until they spotted Percy Jackson's distinctive mussed up black hair. He was standing with a tall man wearing a Bermuda t-shirt and flip flops, a trident in his hand. His appearance was so similar to Percy's there was no doubting who he was.

"He's talking to Poseidon," Jason said, unable to hide the resentful note in his tone.

Piper felt slightly guilty. She had talked to her Mom in a dream and so had Leo. It seemed that Jason was the only one without any parental contact. Especially when compared to Percy Jackson, who always seemed to be chatting with his Father.

As the camera was nearing, however, Poseidon turned and walked away. In his place appeared one unmistakeable as Athena. The camera stopped moving and when she spoke, the goddess sounded hesitant.

"_That's Athena. I don't think she'd appreciate us listening in. I think I'll just … stay for a while."_

"That's not fair," Leo murmured.

"I want to hear too," Piper agreed.

"I don't think Athena would be much pleased though," Jason pointed out.

They all sat in relative silence for a couple of minutes – the music still loud enough in the background – until a shout of _"Percy!"_ made the girl turn the camera. Annabeth was running up, her hair flying. Apparently she had not noticed her Mother.

"_This should be good,"_ the girl snickered and moved closer. Piper frowned.

Annabeth had stopped short and was looking up at Athena. _"Oh. Mom."_

"_I will leave you. For now,"_ Athena said, her voice high and cold. Then she turned and walked away.

"Ouch," Leo muttered. "Just what every guy wants his girlfriend's Mom to be like."

The minor godling didn't turn the camera, but in the corner Piper could easily see crowds moving apart for Athena.

"Everyone's scared of Athena," Leo said. Piper looked at him and the expression on his face said he didn't know whether to laugh or be scared too.

"She's a cool goddess though," Piper defended. "I mean, she's the goddess of wisdom!"

Leo appraised Piper. "Seriously now, how are you an Aphrodite kid?"

Once again Piper didn't know whether to be pleased or offended. Instead she turned back to the TV, where Annabeth was talking to Percy. Actually, she wasn't talking. Her hand was on his head and as the minor goddess zoomed the camera in, they saw it was a streak of grey in his hair.

"Is he that stressed?" Leo asked, only half-joking.

"Annabeth's got one too," Jason noticed, frowning. "I wonder how come?"

"The quest they went on, probably," Piper said thoughtfully. "They didn't have it before, did they?"

"Annabeth still has it, right?" Leo asked.

Piper nodded. "It's faded a little but … We should ask her what for."

"You ask," Leo and Jason said, suddenly, in unison.

Piper raised her eyebrows, turning from one to the other. Jason gave her a small smile but Leo just shrugged.

"Annabeth's almost as scary as her Mom," he explained, and that was enough for Piper.

Finally, Annabeth met his eyes. _"So, what did you want to tell me earlier?"_

"_That I'm totally in love with you!"_ the minor goddess mocked in a high falsetto, sniggering. _"Oh, this is going to be all over Olympus."_

"Ok," Piper announced, slight anger colouring her tone. "I officially do not like her."

Finally, after much hesitation, Percy was speaking. _"I, uh, I was thinking, we got interrupted at Westover Hall … And I think I owe you a dance."_

Piper beamed. On-screen, a smile was forming on Annabeth's face and Piper could _see _the way her eyes lit up.

"_All right, Seaweed Brain,"_ she said.

The camera was still for a few moments as they grasped hands and joined the throng of dancing people, before the goddess holding the camera scoffed.

"_Ew,"_ she said. _"How mushy. But oh my gods they're dancing! I haven't even danced with anyone!"_

_The camera shot upwards as though the girl was standing, revealing herself from her hiding place in_ which she had secretly filmed the two's little interaction. The camera was pointing down at the floor now and all they could see was grass, but voice was still clear.

"_Right,"_ the girl fumed. _"Where is that useless Apollo? He is going to ask me to dance! Even Percy Jackson asked his girlfriend to dance and he's a weirdo!"_

So saying, the girl stormed off into the crowd of dancers in Olympus, the camera in her hand completely forgotten. Piper sniggered and couldn't help but think: _poor Apollo_.

* * *

><p><strong>Right. This is going to be a long one. First of all, excuses. Well, I couldn't write while on holiday and then I returned and got busy with college preperations again. And then I was ready to write and found my muse had disappeared and I had literally <strong>_**no idea **_**what to write and for ages I wrote nothing for anything. And then college happened and I got busy before deciding I kind of owed you. Oh, and somewhere in between I got The Demigod Diaries and wanted to read Leo's story, just in case it gave me more information about the new trio, but only found time recently.**

**You are all bloody brilliant readers and I LOVE you all. The reviews you give me make me spectacularly happy and if I'm ever lacking motivation, all I need to do is read them and I feel spurred on to write again. So here was a rather long one. I hope it wasn't disappointing.**

**The issue with the italics: I know a few of you said you dislike them, but I'm afraid the majority said they make the story better and even I have to admit it makes it easier to differentiate the on-screen and off-screen dialogue. I'm not going to start italicising the descriptions, though. I'm sorry, to those who dislike them. Really very much.**

**Another thing: ;ots of you have been saying you like how Percy's more powerful than Jason, but that wasn't intended! Percy no doubt will come out as more badass than Jason in this story, because we don't really know the extent of Jason's powers, but I don't think Jason is weak in that way. Just a note. But for those of you who live for BAMF!Percy, don't worry, you won't see a lacking of it any time soon, and our New Trio will be just as awed as the rest of us at his continuous misadventures.**

**I'm afraid I **_**really **_**don't know when the next update is going to be, because things are a little hectic at the moment. We shall be starting on BOTL though and I'll try to make it as entertaining as possible. (You never know, it might be next week!)**

**Thank you for all your suggestions on videos to include – there are a few ones repeated that will definitely come up. I'm sorry if I don't actually write yours (like, I know we missed lots of the book in this one, but I couldn't write it turning out good, so I decided to put my own spin on things again) but I'm glad you took the time anyway. Keep them coming!**

**So, long chapter. Tell me what's good, bad and ugly again (because those reviews are especially helpful and I love you for it!). Also, it would be nice if you could tell me what your favourite chapter has been so far, and why? Because all these things help make me a better writer and I gush over helpful reviews.**

**-StrangelyPenned x**

**(Sorry again for the month-and-longer update gap!)**


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